Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-07-21
THE DEVIL FISH.
How he is Hunted at San
Pedro.
THE CHINESE LIKE HIM.
An Adventure with q Gigantic
OctOpus-Facts Regarding
the Queer Fish.
THE DEVIL FISH.
THE CHINESE LIKE HIM.
SAN PEDRO. July 6, 1887.

my Oiic WHO SpclluS uluCh tliilt
upon the fine stretch of sand between
Long Beach and Santa Monica will,
in the course of his rambles fall in
with devil fish, not the frightful OBJ
ject pictured by Hugo, but small
edition of the same, quite ugly enough
to suit the most ardent admirer of the
odd and fantastic in nature. One way
to find devil fish is to follow Chi
naman. John is not particularly in
terested in shells, and when he is seen
walking along the sands he generally
has some other object than viewing
the landscape o'er." He walks near
the edge OF the water and halts
at every big bunch of kelp,
especially if it is attached
to rock, examines it carefully, and
occasionally secures a prize. A long
snake-like arm is seen projecting from
the weed. John prizes the latter open,
and out crawls horrible mass of life
"a gigantic, terrible embryo, as a
French writer forcibly puts it-with
eight long, attenuated arms, radiating
from u bag-like body. The feelers,
arms, legs or tentacles-call them
what you will-differ in length and
are armed upon the lower side with
formidable array of suckers, each one
of which is powerful enough to lift
half pound, and when hun
dreds are applied to the sur
face, and the wrestling, snake-like
limbs are wound about one, the sensa-
ton is, to say the least, not pleasant.
In the lower side of the bag-like body,
between the basis OF the arms, is the
mouth small, yet containing toothed
tongue and two mandibles as teeth,
which are very similar to those of
parrot, with the exception that the
under one fits over the upper instead
of into it. Such wild, cleaning, green
eyes and changing color, is the object
that the Chinaman jerks from among
the weed and tosses into the basket,
where with others it forms mass of
writhing life not inaptly resembling
the scalp of Medusa. At San Pedro
these octopi can be found amid the
rocks; and along the sandy beaches
they are washed up occasionally in
masses of kelp, and are prizes to China
men who concoct therefrom one of the
mysterious dishes for which they are
famous, indeed, there are not wanting
Americans who pronounce octopus not
unlike frogs legs in taste and flavor.
The flesh is white and clear, and there
is no reason why they should not be
as edible as snails or any other mol
lusk, though few can forget the
horrible appearance of this monster.
In Chinatown at Los Angeles they
are quite common, being exhibited
dried, resembling a lot of old rags in
various stages of antiquity, and in the
San Francisco markets they are fire.
quently seen hanging, freshly caught,
looking like eight skinned snakes
hung up by the heads. In southern
waters the writer has speared these
animals that would stretch two feet
across-thickset, powerful creatures
that would wind their arms about the
harpoon and coral and almost defy
me, and, when started, would
bring from twenty to thirty
pounds OF coral with them, when
struck they would throw out black
ink that would discolor the water for
many feet around. never knew one
to attack person in any way, yet
these were pigmies to some that are
occasionally brought to San Francisco.
Some have been seen fifteen feet
across, and the gigantic octapus from
Alaska and the Northern coast is
often seen having radial spread Of
twenty-eight or thirty feet. Such a
monster might well attack human
being, and could readily drown a
swimmer. In 1867 an Indian woman
was drowned by one OF them. She
was in bathing with several compan-
ions, and finally strayed away from
them. Being suddenly missed, boat
was launched, and the man found the
body short way off shore, in the
arms and tentacles of huge octopus. |
The latter was struck with a harpoon,
and both woman and devil-fish were |
hauled ashore.
An old sailor at Portuguese Cove |
had curious adventure with one of
these giants some years ago. 81 was
fust mate of canning factory at the |
time," he said, (which meant good |
deal from canning salmon to catching |
of 'em; and off and on had, bein' a |
sailor man, to run the company's
schooner up the coast about two hun
dred miles to station. On one trip |
had orders to go way up to Sitka, and
there we got caught in gale, run the |
schooner on rock and lost her.
was scared to go back without her, as
l knew I'd lose my job; SO l hung |
around there for while, and
one day a man tackled me and
wanted to know if I'd ever had any |
experience diving. L said l had, so
he hired. me at eight dollars day, to |
20 down and try and raise brig that |
had capsized in the harbor, and the |
long and short of it is that ! worked
at her for a week in about sixty foot
of water. One afternoon, just as was |
coming up, had occasion to 60 into |
the hold that was we'll filled with |
sand. Taking rope swung off, and
when got well down l let 60 and
dropped. l landed on something that |
gave as soon as l touched it, and the |
next moment something grabbed me,
just as snake would, wind
ing about my arms and legs.
l jerked one arm clear, and |
felt that some big animal had me, as
the part took hold OF was just like |
jelly, but tough, and the minute
touched it it cut into my skin like so
many knives. tried to walk, but it
was Just as if my legs were roped, and
to say that l was scared don't begin to |
express it. had a knife, though, and
when / got my head l took it out, run
it under me at the things and ripped
it up in minute, then another; but |
somehow, even when | cut them, they
clung to me. When had slashed the
arms up gave the signal and was
hauled up, with them things
clinging to me. The next time
I went down 7 took n rome and tied